1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a wrist-carried camera and watch-type information equipment, and more particularly to a camera shaped to be worn about the wrist of an operator like a wristwatch, a portable information terminal and other portable small information equipment.
2. Description of Related Art
In the field of electronic cameras such as a digital camera, a great deal of effort was put into the miniaturization of the cameras. Japanese Patent Provisional Publication Nos. 5-209973, 8-278382, 10-108152, etc. disclose a variety of wrist-carried cameras. In the conventional wrist-carried camera, however, the position of the taking lens and the direction of an optical axis of the taking lens are fixed. Accordingly, the operator has to put the wrist with the worn wristwatch-type camera in front of the body to use the functions of the camera, and the operator has to move the body or the wrist to turn the taking lens toward the object. In this case, the operator has to move the wrist in an unnatural way sometimes in order to adjust the angle of view desirably.
Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 10-90442 discloses the combination of a wristwatch and a radiotelephone. It proposed to use hands of an analog watch as indicators, which do not only represent time but also indicate which button has been pressed among control buttons arranged at the circumference of the watch. It is, however, impossible to determine at first sight whether the hands of the watch represent the time or indicate the control button.